BROOD MARES AND COLTS 221 



and our experience can dictate ; and I think I have 

 said enough on this subject to make the most sceptical 

 of your readers beheve that he cannot be equal to his 

 work till the greater part of his labours are at an end, 

 unless he has been treated on the system I recommend. 

 It is now becoming pretty general in some countries, 

 I wish it may be so in all ; and if what I have written 

 may tend to make it so, not only will one object be 

 attained, but I shall derive an inward satisfaction 

 of mind on which I can put no price. For this shall 

 my sins be forgiven me ; and the sun of my old age 

 will set without a cloud, 



I think Q. was imposed upon when he was told 

 of " the cocktail that ran four miles from grass, and 

 came in with a dry crust on her coat." I certainly 

 have a mare (not the one I have before spoken of) 

 whose condition is so perfect, that if hounds are running 

 up-wind, and slacken their pace a little, she becomes 

 dry, as several of my brother sportsmen have wit- 

 nessed ; and what makes it more remarkable, she is 

 of a hot and fractious temper. 



In one of my former letters on this subject I spoke 

 of a method of shoeing a hunter so as effectually to 

 prevent his cutting himself by overreaching his legs 

 in deep ground, or in leaping brooks. It is sometimes 

 difficult to convey our ideas on paper to the minds of 

 others without the help of the pencil ; and some of 

 my brother sportsmen have told me they could not 

 exactly comprehend what part of the shoe I recom- 

 mended to be bevelled off. It is the inner edge that 

 requires bevelling. 



